THE mega burger attacked yesterday for being overloaded with fat and salt quietly slimmed down overnight - losing almost five grams of saturated fat and one gram of salt from the nutrition values listed on the Hungry Jack's website.
The company's Angry Angus burger, packed with two beef patties, bacon and deep-fried onion rings, was condemned by health experts who demanded it carry a warning label alerting consumers to its 26 grams of saturated fat and 5.6 grams of salt.
But late on Tuesday night, Hungry Jack's changed the burger's nutrition values, telling the Sydney Morning Herald it had mistakenly included four slices of cheese in its analysis, rather than two.
"We've reviewed the information and found we had made an incorrect call, but I can guarantee those figures are now 100 per cent correct," a spokesman, Gordon Coulter, said yesterday.
The new figures state the burger has dropped 83 calories, 4.7 grams of protein, one gram of salt, 6.7 grams of fat and 800 milligrams of sugars.
But the changes have baffled one nutritionist, who says two standard slices of processed cheddar cheese, using Australian food tables, contain 167 calories, 10.8 grams of protein, 1.7 grams of salt, 13.8 grams of fat and 150 milligrams of sugars.
"Each company performs its own analysis and nobody really checks; certainly the Government doesn't," Jenny O'Dea, an associate professor in health education and nutrition at the University of Sydney, said.
"These companies should employ a dietitian to check the final analyses because there is certainly a margin for error."
Hungry Jack's yesterday refused to supply a nutrition analysis of its cheese. "The cheese in the Angry Angus is the same as the one used in all Hungry Jack's burgers featuring cheese," Mr Coulter said.
"It is a processed cheddar cheese slice commonly used in the food services industry and throughout the fast food industry."
A study three years ago by the NSW Food Authority found that about 84 per cent of products were wrongly labelled and those which claimed to be low in sodium or fat were more likely than other foods to feature incorrect information, sometimes making nutrition panels unreliable.
A senior food policy officer with Choice, Clare Hughes, said panels were not fail-safe but could still offer a reasonable guide to buyers.
"They can give you some idea of the content, and is this case it looks like it is good news because there is less fat and salt in the burger than we first thought," she said.
Using the original figures, Sydney's World Action on Salt and Health had warned the Angry Angus burger contained twice as much saturated fat and 40 per cent more salt than the recommended daily intakes.
Intakes at such levels could lead to chronic high blood pressure, heart attack, kidney failure and stroke.
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